but if you have a change of heart and return to Me and walk according to My commands, then no matter how far you have gone, even to the places beyond the horizon, I will gather you and bring you to the place of My choosing, where My very name dwells.”

Artaxerxes (to Nehemiah): You look disturbed. I know you are not ill. The sadness I see in you is the sadness of the heart. What is wrong? As I stood there before the king I was very afraid.

under the cover of darkness, I was accompanied by a small group of men. The True God had placed a secret plan on my heart, and there I had left it hidden until the time was right. No one knew what it was I imagined for Jerusalem. With my men walking beside me, I mounted and rode around the city.

In him You found a true heart, a heart devoted to You. With him You made a covenant that the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, The Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites would belong to him and to his descendants. And what You have promised, You have done because You are righteous.